The Willoughbys (2020)

The Willoughbys (2020)

Director: Kris Pearn, Rob Lodermeier, Cory Evans

Cast (voice): Ricky Gervais, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski, Sean Cullen, Brian Drummond

Convinced they’d be better off raising themselves, the Willoughby children hatch a sneaky plan to send their selfish parents on vacation. The siblings then embark on their own high-flying adventure to find the true meaning of family. – IMDB

There’s nothing like a quirky and colorful animated film to bring in some joy. The Willoughbys fills that really well. While its a bit of everything mushed together and incredibly random, (maybe you can call it imaginative), it manages to be clever especially as its full of little references of other popular things from movies and whatnot in their own version that makes it absolutely enjoyable to watch. That’s something that I’ve always appreciated in movies. It starts off with narration a little like A Series of Unfortunate Events and then the story moves on and these children are a little random like the Despicable Me kids and then we move forward the characters they meet including their parents are all very extreme in their own ways. It still manages to be quite entertaining.

The Willoughbys has a decent cast behind it and a few of them are pretty recognizable. First of all, we start of with Ricky Gervais being the narrator who is a cat that lingers in the neighborhood and just like Gervais’s humor, he delivers some funny narration that carries the story from one scene to the next. The parents who love each other so much that they don’t have any love left for their kids is voiced by Martin Short and Jane Krakowski, who are suitably mean for a family film. The nanny is voiced by Maya Rudolph who I’ve always loved and found incredibly underrated but her enthusiasm really carries through into the nanny here and adds so much fun. Then, on their city escape, the kids ends up meeting a Willy Wonka parallel sort of character voiced by Terry Crews whose voice is very unique and wildly entertaining all the time.

The Willoughbys is incredibly silly and at times some of the things that happen are a little absurd however somehow it all works together. There’s a lot to love here with the story progression. The kids themselves are trapped inside their world and each have their own personalities that somewhat balance each other out. They also have the heart to be true Willoughbys and defining what makes a good person and making good choices even if they don’t have the best approaches. At the same time, its a touching story about family whether its between the siblings or the finding them along the way.

You know what The Willoughbys is? Its simply a great time. Its full of laughs and adventures, mistakes and bad decisions and most of all, learning the meaning of family. There’s clever dialogue, fun characters and some pretty great voice cast tossed into the mix. Its charming, clever and colorful: three things that I love in animated films. Totally recommend this one!

The Little Prince (2015)

Have you ever read The Little Prince? I remember it being one of the first books my mom gave me when I was young.  Its been so many years that I haven’t read it.  From the moment I saw the trailer of The Little Prince, I just fell in love with it and it shot up my list of to-see films.  The problem was that The Little Prince didn’t have a set date as to when it was hitting theatres in the Montreal area.  By accident, I was checking out hours for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and it had hit theatres just this past Friday.  Imagine the joy I had! Hello, movie theatre and the best part is my husband volunteered to go with me even if its not really something he knows anything about.  Right before we went to the theatres, I even found time to read the book also! On that note, you should be expecting a review of that soon.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

The Little Prince (2015)

Director: Mark Osborne

Voice Cast: Jeff Bridges, Mackenzie Foy, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Riley Osborne, James Franco, Paul Rudd, Benicio Del Toro, Ricky Gervais, Paul Giamatti

A little girl lives in a very grown-up world with her mother, who tries to make sure she’s prepared for it. Her neighbor, The Aviator, introduces the girl to an extraordinary world where anything is possible, the world of The Little Prince. – IMDB

I don’t think any story has ever captured youth and being a child like The Little Prince.  The novel, I mean.  I guess its why I was a little nervous about how this would turn out.  Reading the novel before I went to see this movie was a good move though.  It wasn’t necessary to understand the story at all but it does justify the need for having a side story of the Little Girl and her meeting The Aviator next door who tells her the story.  Some of the art was taken from the book which helps us connect the stories.  The best part of The Little Prince has to go to using CGI for the modern day story and The Little Prince’s story of his travels was done with stop motion animation. I loved the contrast of that because it gives it a storybook feeling for the recounting of the story.  It was a lovely touch.

Before we talk about the next point, go back up to the voice cast names up there. The talent embedded in this movie is amazing.  Marion Cotillard played The Rose and her elegant voice matches that role completely.  Then we have The Fox who was James Franco.  I feel like Jeff Bridges hasn’t been in any commendable live-action movies in a while but his voice for The Aviator was just fantastic.  As was the voices for young actors doing The Little Prince, Riley Osborne and The Little Girl  by Mackenzie Foy.

Another aspect that was done really well for The Little Prince was the music.  It was beautiful from the score to the soundtrack. My favorite has to be this one called Equation.  I watched it in English so it had the English version but I love this French one even more!

Light-hearted, soft, warm, sweet, cute.  These are all terms I’d associate with The Little Prince.  It knows when to tug at our heartstrings also with the little side story regardless of its The Little Prince or the parallel of The Little Girl finding her youth when her mom has truly been raising her to look into the future as a grown-up before she’s even experienced enjoyed being a child. The Little Girl really finds herself with the story of The Little Prince and spending time with The Aviator.  Their friendship together is really a sweet one and grows in a beautiful way.  It uses gentle hints at the more dreary things that as an adult we can understand.  The Little Prince plays around a little with the original though by inserting their own little adventure of The Little Girl and The Aviator and extends to her going out to find The Little Prince.  I won’t expand on what happens after there as to keep it fresh.  I’m a little hesitant on how that part is contributing to the story itself but it did hold its message well enough.  I’m not sure if it keeps the subtle message that the novel The Little Prince was trying to say and for that, I’m not exactly sure die hard fans of the book might like this change, but while I question that decision, it didn’t stop me from fully falling in love with the characters and catch myself tearing up at certain parts. I’m not one to nitpick on making adaptations exactly like their source material and for that, I could enjoy this one quite a bit.  It adds something extra while telling the beautiful story of The Little Prince that we are familiar with.

Overall, The Little Prince is a beautiful animation.  It handles the source material well and adds something different to help us resonate the message it holds.  With a masterful mix of computer graphics and stop motion animation, it brings a new touch. The voice cast is stellar and brings life to each of its character.  The unexpected friendship between The Little Girl and The Aviator is a special one that connects well. At the same time, it never makes us forget about the heart and imagination of being a child.  While I feel that the last segment felt a little weird and the part where maybe it might make some fans of the book hesitate to enjoy this movie as much as others, it did its best to expand upon the source material in their own way and for that I enjoyed the heart behind it. The Little Prince is definitely worth a watch if you enjoy beautiful animation and soundtracks mixed with an imaginative story.

Have you seen The Little Prince? Did you ever read the novel? What are your thoughts on it?